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2018-09-10
A Robotic Future for the United States Army
Winning the wars of the future will depend on the adaptability of leaders, the skill set of soldiers and the use of advanced technology. The U.S. Army Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) strategy promises to commit time, talent and resources in the integration of new technologies to ensure victory over increasingly capable enemies.
RAS technologies can accelerate battlefield speed of action in increasingly complex and contested operational environments introducing army leaders to new ideas and encouraging bottom-up learning from soldiers or units in experimentation and warfighting assessment. This article will demonstrate how RAS will come into play in the short, medium and long term to assist forces in defeating enemies, controlling terrain and consolidating gains.
Short Term Objectives (2018-2020)
Funded within current budgets, the US Army (USAF) will continue to develop concepts and programmes to increase situational awareness, lighten soldier load and improve sustainment.
They will enhance battlefield freedom and augment force protection by steadily integrating autonomous systems into combined arms manoeuvres.
Increasing situational awareness:
The USAF will procure more portable RAS for both mounted and dismounted forces to build increased autonomy and endurance for small UAS
making contact with threats on their own terms. Mounted forces will benefit from tethered and untethered systems which can transmit live video streams to leaders and support local security operations.
Reduce dismounted equipment:
RAS platforms of varying size will serve as a power source, carrying equipment, weapons, ammunition, water, food and supplies to shift the physical burdens away from dismounted soldiers. The U.S. Army continues to invest in exoskeleton technology to lighten soldier load, therefore increasing their endurance.
Lightening cognitive load:
The RAS strategy will enable the Mission Command Network to extend connectivity in dangerous situations and improve the tactical mobility of command posts, as well as employing enhanced knowledge management through changes to the Mission Command System.
High-tempo operational communication:
Investment in automated ground convoys will improve resupply across wide areas via self-guided resupply parachutes, while seeking to make UAS resupply feasible in the midterm.
Vehicle sensors, computers and decision-support tools will increase threat mitigation by managing vehicle speed, interval, obstacle avoidance and limited visibility operations.
Tactical-wheeled vehicles are now equipped with active safety and semi-autonomous leader-follower technology to rest drivers for critical human-only tasks.
Ensuring battlefield freedom-of-manoeuvre:
The U.S. Army will invest in capabilities for route clearance, breaching and Counter-IED which, in the short-term, will improve off-road ground vehicle autonomy as the greatest technological challenge for unmanned combat-vehicle employment.
Cognitive aids will “optimally pilot” the Army’s Future Vertical Lift, with similar investments in airframe and propulsion ensuring that the UAS possesses sufficient reach, protection and lethality for manned and unmanned combined-arms manoeuvre.
RAS force protection:
RAS investments for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operations enhance route-clearance payloads and increase the autonomy of small robots to clear obstacles faster.
Other RAS technology protects forces by increasing situational awareness through systems like soldier-borne sensors.
Mid-Term Objectives (2021-2030)
The USAF will continue to research autonomy, machine learning, AI, power management and common control to achieve more capable UGS and UAS. In the mid-term, however, the primary focus is an improvement in situational awareness, soldier load reduction, sustainment and manoeuvre.
Through human-machine collaboration and advanced RAS, new programmes will pursue load-reducing exoskeleton concepts, while unmanned combat vehicles will deliver advanced capabilities to manoeuvre units
.
Finally, improvements in automated convoy operations will seek full autonomy by removing soldiers from the lead vehicle under the Leader-Follower programme.
Enhanced RAS situational awareness:
Advanced RAS situational awareness tools will improve the lethality of air-ground teams configured with manned and unmanned combat systems. RAS will free soldiers from the cognitive and physical burdens of surveillance-and-reconnaissance missions, while the increasing occurrence of manned/unmanned formations will further impact upon information flows, requiring new knowledge management tactics, techniques and procedures.
Building upon existing capabilities for situational awareness with swarming capabilities the USAF will increase the coverage, persistence and duration of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions at every echelon. By using artificial intelligence to share information, networked robots can cover larger areas using small enhanced-autonomy UGS which serve as static and mobile battlefield sensors capable of providing navigation assistance in degraded environments.
Load-lightening exoskeleton capabilities:
The U.S. army is looking to increase autonomy in medium-sized and larger UGS in order to move the workload continually from soldiers onto RAS platforms, therefore increasing resupply and the movement of squad enablers between dismounted units.
The army will introduce exoskeleton technologies to lighten soldier load, enabling increased soldier protection during close combat and allowing soldiers to carry more innovative and capable firepower solutions at the level of the individual soldier.
Improving fully-automated sustainment:
Although short-term automated resupply only follows manned lead vehicles, in the mid-term, vehicles will move autonomously amongst security elements because advanced robotic systems will heighten automated sustainment to new vehicle fleets.
The army’s programmes for medium and large cargo UAS will reduce reliance upon manned rotary wing support and improve throughput capabilities while, in regard to casualty evacuation, autonomous systems will shorten the transition time from initial injury to casualty collection points or treatment facilities.
Unmanned advanced-payload manoeuvres:
The USAF’s new unmanned combat vehicles can manoeuvre across variable and rough terrain under combat conditions. Moreover, they now have RAS-enabled combat platforms offering optionally-manned or semiautonomous technology.
The army intends to field prototypes for testing while autonomous off-road technology fully matures. In the meantime, it will modernise its UAS fleet with scalable control interfaces and a runway-independent, expeditionary tactical UAS.
Long-Term Objectives (2031-2040)
When fully integrated into the force, autonomous systems allow soldiers and leaders to focus on mission execution rather than manipulation and direct task control of robots. With studies and lessons learned from near- and mid-term initiatives informing new organisational designs of fully incorporated autonomous systems, the U.S. Army will hence use these technologies to maintain situational advantage from home station to initial entry, enabling rapid transition to other operational phases.
Although long-term visionary objectives have limited research and development funding, the USAF will replace its antiquated autonomous systems and field new autonomous UGS and UAS developed through short- and mid-term commercial science and technology investments. In the long-term, rapidly deployable RAS will enable commanders to retain the initiative during high-tempo, decentralised operations because connected mission command systems can now allow for on-the-move mission command and rapid transition to offensive operations after initial entry.
Swarming systems reconnaissance:
With the objective of increasing situational awareness, the U.S. Army will deliver swarms of small robots to an area of operations in advance of close-combat manoeuvre forces. Swarm robots will be fully powered, self-unpacking and ready for immediate service, with delivery options ranging from a simple shipping container to a special-purpose platform from which smaller craft or robotic systems are launched or maintained.
Both autonomous systems and swarm robots enable a manoeuvrable network, greatly improving the tactical mobility and signature management of command posts.
Although the existence of manned/unmanned formations still requires new knowledge management and adjustments to the Mission Command Network, the automation of entire logistics efforts will allow soldiers to focus on combat activities and direct missions where only human decisions and actions are required.
Autonomous aerial delivery:
When the focus on the ground is on fully-automated tactical-wheeled vehicles, autonomous aerial systems can provide increased resupply capabilities to move containerised and packaged loads between distribution nodes and forward areas. The result will be reduced reliance on manned rotary wing support.
Facilitating unmanned manoeuvres:
Unmanned combat vehicles will soon have the capability to move and manoeuvre autonomously, extending the effects of the manned-unmanned team in both air and ground through investments in scalable sensors, teaming, and AI and soldier-robot communication.
In the future, combat formations will benefit from armed ground and aircraft robotic platforms, but this time with smaller signatures and longer endurance once they are able to work alone or in pairs to destroy high-value targets deep in enemy territory.
Conclusion
Recently, and after more than 15 years of conflict, America’s adversaries had again achieved military parity by investing in advanced technologies once monopolised by the U.S. Army to degrade competitive advantage on the battlefield. Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s response was the implementation of a Third Offset Strategy focused on Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Deep-Learning Machines (RAS).
The Army has sought to address three challenges in future-operating environments: greater speed of action on the battlefield; heightened use of RAS by adversaries; and increasingly complex and congested environments. Primary short-term technology investment has focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and development autonomy, with AI as the sine qua non enabling unmanned platforms to operate autonomously.
For the Army, autonomous mobility is the most challenging for ground combat vehicles, but advancements in AI and off-road mobility will enhance operations by steadily integrating autonomous systems into combined–arms manoeuvres. To expedite the fielding of robotic systems, the committee responsible for budgeting and programming, known as the Army G-8, has recommended the enhanced use of directed requirements as a bridge to ensure that rapidly changing technologies reach ground troops swiftly.
Autonomous system integration means that the Army has significantly increased resources for expedited fielding, doubling RAS programme expenditures for 2018-2023 to ensure that the RAS Strategy remains focused on the primary objective of maintaining overmatch and pursuing new technologies to protect soldiers. As land forces work to gain positions of relative advantage, RAS will provide a vital component in achieving domain superiority.
With less human exposure to hazards, the risks inherent to deception operations, penetration behind enemy defences and pursuit operations will become less costly, giving commanders greater options and more reliable freedom of manoeuvre. RAS platforms thus promise to provide commanders with the ability to conduct the most dangerous manoeuvres, with machines taking the place of humans and able to make contact with likely threats without costing commanders valuable soldiers.
To prevail in a complex world, the U.S. Army will use RAS to provide the Joint Force with multiple options for operation across multiple domains, presenting adversaries with multiple dilemmas in battlefield combat. In providing clarity and vision of how the U.S. Army intends to exploit breakthroughs in RAS technology and innovation, the RAS Strategy will help determine how the army fights in the future.
Reference Text/Photo:
www.arcic.army.mil,
www.army.mil
www.disruptivetechdefence.iqpc.co.uk
RAS technologies can accelerate battlefield speed of action in increasingly complex and contested operational environments introducing army leaders to new ideas and encouraging bottom-up learning from soldiers or units in experimentation and warfighting assessment. This article will demonstrate how RAS will come into play in the short, medium and long term to assist forces in defeating enemies, controlling terrain and consolidating gains.
Short Term Objectives (2018-2020)
Funded within current budgets, the US Army (USAF) will continue to develop concepts and programmes to increase situational awareness, lighten soldier load and improve sustainment.
They will enhance battlefield freedom and augment force protection by steadily integrating autonomous systems into combined arms manoeuvres.
Increasing situational awareness:
The USAF will procure more portable RAS for both mounted and dismounted forces to build increased autonomy and endurance for small UAS
making contact with threats on their own terms. Mounted forces will benefit from tethered and untethered systems which can transmit live video streams to leaders and support local security operations.
Reduce dismounted equipment:
RAS platforms of varying size will serve as a power source, carrying equipment, weapons, ammunition, water, food and supplies to shift the physical burdens away from dismounted soldiers. The U.S. Army continues to invest in exoskeleton technology to lighten soldier load, therefore increasing their endurance.
Lightening cognitive load:
The RAS strategy will enable the Mission Command Network to extend connectivity in dangerous situations and improve the tactical mobility of command posts, as well as employing enhanced knowledge management through changes to the Mission Command System.
High-tempo operational communication:
Investment in automated ground convoys will improve resupply across wide areas via self-guided resupply parachutes, while seeking to make UAS resupply feasible in the midterm.
Vehicle sensors, computers and decision-support tools will increase threat mitigation by managing vehicle speed, interval, obstacle avoidance and limited visibility operations.
Tactical-wheeled vehicles are now equipped with active safety and semi-autonomous leader-follower technology to rest drivers for critical human-only tasks.
Ensuring battlefield freedom-of-manoeuvre:
The U.S. Army will invest in capabilities for route clearance, breaching and Counter-IED which, in the short-term, will improve off-road ground vehicle autonomy as the greatest technological challenge for unmanned combat-vehicle employment.
Cognitive aids will “optimally pilot” the Army’s Future Vertical Lift, with similar investments in airframe and propulsion ensuring that the UAS possesses sufficient reach, protection and lethality for manned and unmanned combined-arms manoeuvre.
RAS force protection:
RAS investments for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operations enhance route-clearance payloads and increase the autonomy of small robots to clear obstacles faster.
Other RAS technology protects forces by increasing situational awareness through systems like soldier-borne sensors.
Mid-Term Objectives (2021-2030)
The USAF will continue to research autonomy, machine learning, AI, power management and common control to achieve more capable UGS and UAS. In the mid-term, however, the primary focus is an improvement in situational awareness, soldier load reduction, sustainment and manoeuvre.
Through human-machine collaboration and advanced RAS, new programmes will pursue load-reducing exoskeleton concepts, while unmanned combat vehicles will deliver advanced capabilities to manoeuvre units
.
Finally, improvements in automated convoy operations will seek full autonomy by removing soldiers from the lead vehicle under the Leader-Follower programme.
Enhanced RAS situational awareness:
Advanced RAS situational awareness tools will improve the lethality of air-ground teams configured with manned and unmanned combat systems. RAS will free soldiers from the cognitive and physical burdens of surveillance-and-reconnaissance missions, while the increasing occurrence of manned/unmanned formations will further impact upon information flows, requiring new knowledge management tactics, techniques and procedures.
Building upon existing capabilities for situational awareness with swarming capabilities the USAF will increase the coverage, persistence and duration of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions at every echelon. By using artificial intelligence to share information, networked robots can cover larger areas using small enhanced-autonomy UGS which serve as static and mobile battlefield sensors capable of providing navigation assistance in degraded environments.
Load-lightening exoskeleton capabilities:
The U.S. army is looking to increase autonomy in medium-sized and larger UGS in order to move the workload continually from soldiers onto RAS platforms, therefore increasing resupply and the movement of squad enablers between dismounted units.
The army will introduce exoskeleton technologies to lighten soldier load, enabling increased soldier protection during close combat and allowing soldiers to carry more innovative and capable firepower solutions at the level of the individual soldier.
Improving fully-automated sustainment:
Although short-term automated resupply only follows manned lead vehicles, in the mid-term, vehicles will move autonomously amongst security elements because advanced robotic systems will heighten automated sustainment to new vehicle fleets.
The army’s programmes for medium and large cargo UAS will reduce reliance upon manned rotary wing support and improve throughput capabilities while, in regard to casualty evacuation, autonomous systems will shorten the transition time from initial injury to casualty collection points or treatment facilities.
Unmanned advanced-payload manoeuvres:
The USAF’s new unmanned combat vehicles can manoeuvre across variable and rough terrain under combat conditions. Moreover, they now have RAS-enabled combat platforms offering optionally-manned or semiautonomous technology.
The army intends to field prototypes for testing while autonomous off-road technology fully matures. In the meantime, it will modernise its UAS fleet with scalable control interfaces and a runway-independent, expeditionary tactical UAS.
Long-Term Objectives (2031-2040)
When fully integrated into the force, autonomous systems allow soldiers and leaders to focus on mission execution rather than manipulation and direct task control of robots. With studies and lessons learned from near- and mid-term initiatives informing new organisational designs of fully incorporated autonomous systems, the U.S. Army will hence use these technologies to maintain situational advantage from home station to initial entry, enabling rapid transition to other operational phases.
Although long-term visionary objectives have limited research and development funding, the USAF will replace its antiquated autonomous systems and field new autonomous UGS and UAS developed through short- and mid-term commercial science and technology investments. In the long-term, rapidly deployable RAS will enable commanders to retain the initiative during high-tempo, decentralised operations because connected mission command systems can now allow for on-the-move mission command and rapid transition to offensive operations after initial entry.
Swarming systems reconnaissance:
With the objective of increasing situational awareness, the U.S. Army will deliver swarms of small robots to an area of operations in advance of close-combat manoeuvre forces. Swarm robots will be fully powered, self-unpacking and ready for immediate service, with delivery options ranging from a simple shipping container to a special-purpose platform from which smaller craft or robotic systems are launched or maintained.
Both autonomous systems and swarm robots enable a manoeuvrable network, greatly improving the tactical mobility and signature management of command posts.
Although the existence of manned/unmanned formations still requires new knowledge management and adjustments to the Mission Command Network, the automation of entire logistics efforts will allow soldiers to focus on combat activities and direct missions where only human decisions and actions are required.
Autonomous aerial delivery:
When the focus on the ground is on fully-automated tactical-wheeled vehicles, autonomous aerial systems can provide increased resupply capabilities to move containerised and packaged loads between distribution nodes and forward areas. The result will be reduced reliance on manned rotary wing support.
Facilitating unmanned manoeuvres:
Unmanned combat vehicles will soon have the capability to move and manoeuvre autonomously, extending the effects of the manned-unmanned team in both air and ground through investments in scalable sensors, teaming, and AI and soldier-robot communication.
In the future, combat formations will benefit from armed ground and aircraft robotic platforms, but this time with smaller signatures and longer endurance once they are able to work alone or in pairs to destroy high-value targets deep in enemy territory.
Conclusion
Recently, and after more than 15 years of conflict, America’s adversaries had again achieved military parity by investing in advanced technologies once monopolised by the U.S. Army to degrade competitive advantage on the battlefield. Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s response was the implementation of a Third Offset Strategy focused on Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Deep-Learning Machines (RAS).
The Army has sought to address three challenges in future-operating environments: greater speed of action on the battlefield; heightened use of RAS by adversaries; and increasingly complex and congested environments. Primary short-term technology investment has focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and development autonomy, with AI as the sine qua non enabling unmanned platforms to operate autonomously.
For the Army, autonomous mobility is the most challenging for ground combat vehicles, but advancements in AI and off-road mobility will enhance operations by steadily integrating autonomous systems into combined–arms manoeuvres. To expedite the fielding of robotic systems, the committee responsible for budgeting and programming, known as the Army G-8, has recommended the enhanced use of directed requirements as a bridge to ensure that rapidly changing technologies reach ground troops swiftly.
Autonomous system integration means that the Army has significantly increased resources for expedited fielding, doubling RAS programme expenditures for 2018-2023 to ensure that the RAS Strategy remains focused on the primary objective of maintaining overmatch and pursuing new technologies to protect soldiers. As land forces work to gain positions of relative advantage, RAS will provide a vital component in achieving domain superiority.
With less human exposure to hazards, the risks inherent to deception operations, penetration behind enemy defences and pursuit operations will become less costly, giving commanders greater options and more reliable freedom of manoeuvre. RAS platforms thus promise to provide commanders with the ability to conduct the most dangerous manoeuvres, with machines taking the place of humans and able to make contact with likely threats without costing commanders valuable soldiers.
To prevail in a complex world, the U.S. Army will use RAS to provide the Joint Force with multiple options for operation across multiple domains, presenting adversaries with multiple dilemmas in battlefield combat. In providing clarity and vision of how the U.S. Army intends to exploit breakthroughs in RAS technology and innovation, the RAS Strategy will help determine how the army fights in the future.
Reference Text/Photo:
www.arcic.army.mil,
www.army.mil
www.disruptivetechdefence.iqpc.co.uk
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